Will using two coffee filter bags make coffee that's twice as strong?

I have a co-worker that uses 2 filtered coffee bags when brewing coffee in a regular Bun drip coffee maker. She thinks that the coffee will be twice as strong. Does anyone know if this is true?

ANSWER:

Jeff, hi

Yes and no.

The brew will certainly taste a little stronger, but not twice as strong. And it will be a horrible brew. The coffee won’t taste as good. It will be under-extracted.

Here’s the thing...

If you are making instant coffee, adding two spoonful’s instead of one doubles the strength. But when brewing with ground coffee, it doesn’t work that way.

There is a reason for the recommended proportion of water to ground coffee. You need just the right amount of water to soak the ground coffee and extract its flavors.

Too little water – proportionately – and the coffee is under-extracted. Too much water and it’s over-extracted.

When you use two filter bags, it basically means you are using just half the correct amount of water. This means there isn’t enough water flowing through to extract the full flavor and strength from all the ground coffee.

So although it might appear you’re going to get coffee that is twice as strong, that’s not what happens. By the time the water has flowed through the two bags, a lot of the flavor and caffeine is still untapped and thrown away when you toss out the used bags.

If your colleague wants stronger coffee, she might want to try out some different brands of coffee.

I hope this helps a little.

Nick

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